What a treat this place is! Concrete floors, tables covered in brown Kraft paper and some of the best seafood on the island. Not inexpensive, but the portions were very generous. Go here at least once during any visit to Chincoteague Island.
PS - a local told us today that the chef at Steamers is new and came from another local eatery, The Village Restaurant.
2.5 stars. Food could have been better, service could have been better and environment would have been better had we not been seated right next to the TV blaring on the wall. We could hardly hear each other for the entire 2 hour meal.
Don't come here if you are in a hurry, your meal will take a minimum of 2 hours.
Our server was slow, partly because whoever the manager is doesn't know that it's not a good idea to give your server two sections of tables clear on the opposite side of the restaurant from each other, and partly because he was just slow. We had a hungry, tired two year old with us and, because my husband chose the AYCE, we were held hostage without food for over an hour while they tried to fill him up with hush puppies and soup and other chaff before presenting the steamed shrimp. This pissed me off, especially in a restaurant where they are going to charge you if he were to dare give us a hush puppy from his food. I guess it's not an issue if your whole table chooses AYCE, but be aware that if you aren't ordering it, you will be sitting there watching your dining partner eat for a while before you ever get food.
My broiled platter was so crowded that everything got more steamed than broiled. The shrimp was badly overcooked (both mine and his). The scallops were delicious. One of my three oysters didn't open (aka - was dead) and they still brought it out to me, nice. Child's chicken tenders + fries were good but she was so beyond overtired by the time they brought her food that she would not eat any of it.
There is nothing fancy about this place, but what's fancy about all you can eat crabs for $30-35? Â Long plastic tables covered with butcher paper.
Our server, Sean (Shawn?), was a great guy who was very helpful and attentive. The AYE option was a little misleading-- we got a ton of fried chicken and hush puppies, popcorn shrimp, etc. Â We really didn't want to bring that, but we didn't realize that we were going to get that first. The chicken was dry, but the other items were fine.
The crabs were okay, but they bring a tray of 6-8 at a time. They get cold three or four crabs in. Â It's disappointing because I'd rather have a hot pot of crabs brought to the table. Â Still, the crabs are delicious, and the steamed shrimp are creamy and very nice (just not de-veined, so be careful). Â
Want AYE crabs and shrimp for an affordable price? Â This is your place.
I've been to this place a couple of times and will definitely be back. Â It seems to be in a transition phase since they have a bar and a game room of some sort now (pool table). Â The waitresses both times were very nice and very attentive and food was excellent. Â I eat on the island very often and it is nice to see a menu that provides some variety compared to some of the other restaurants on the island. Â it's a more casual atmosphere.
I wasn't overly impressed in one visit by the "hostess" who basically waived me in while she sat and texted, but once I got in I was glad I was there.
On the island in tourist season it's hard to get a nice sit down meal for dinner because everywhere is packed. Got right in here after trying several other seafood restaurants without finding one that could seat us in less than an hour. Loud and noisy place - sort of like a Chucky Cheese for adults I guess. Waitress was great - funny, attentive, and very helpful. Food was mediocre at best. Not bad but not good either. This place obviously specializes in expensive all you can eat dinners and we ordered off the menu so maybe that was part of it. Nah - not again. We'd rather grab something off the dollar menu at McDonald's.
Review Source:Our family's number one most favorite restaurant in town. Â We go to this restaurant every time we are in town and always find the food to be fresh and very plentiful. Â In fact, we always feel stuffed leaving after eating there. Â The service is also very good and I highly recommend eating there.
Review Source:My husband and I had a really god time at Steamers. Â Having read the reviews, I wasn't sure what to expect. Â We were skeptical at first, but now we're believers.
This was our best dining experience on the island. Â It was exactly what we were looking for...nothing fancy, all you can eat crabs. Â It was not cheap, $34/person, but you definitely get your money's worth. Â If you're looking for a fun, memorable meal while visiting Chincoteague, I would highly recommend this place. Â If you're looking for a quiet, sit down type of place, this is not the place for you. Â This place would be especially fun with a group of friends or family. Â
The restaurant is a no frills kind of place, almost cafeteria style. Â They put paper on the tables since surely you will make a mess, and serve almost everything in paper and plastic. Â
The menu is extensive, but it's obvious that they specialize in the all you can eat steamed items (hence the name Steamers and the butcher paper on the tables). Â I'm actually not sure why anyone would order entrees. Â I'm a big believer in sticking to a restaurant's specialties...the things they are known for. Â Generally, anything else is only on the menu to provide other menu options for the small percentage of folks who don't like whatever a particular restaurant's specialty is. Â You don't go to a steak place and order chicken; you don't go to a seafood place and order spaghetti and you shouldn't go to Steamers unless you're ordering steamed or maybe fried seafood.
The food was FANTASTIC! Â My husband and I both ordered the all you can eat Shrimp and blue crabs. Â All of their all you can eat meals come with a variety of extras which are clearly offered with the express purpose of filling you up so that you don't actually ask for more once you finish your steamed items. Â We didn't mind because they were all pretty good. Â Here goes:
Sweet potato biscuits: Â Awesome. I'm not a biscuit fan, but these were unique and pretty amazing. Â We almost asked for more, but they served so much food that we were reluctant to stuff ourselves with more bread.
Salad: OK. Â It was your standard garden salad. I had blue cheese dressing which was pretty good.
Island Crab Soup: Â Meh. For a little extra you can get the Island crab soup instead of the corn chowder. So, we both had the crab soup. Â It was the one disappointment I had during the meal. Â It was really really really thick, almost like crab dip. I felt like I should be eating it on bread. Â Regardless, the soup did have a nice flavor and lots of crab.
Basket of fried clams, shrimp, hush puppies and chicken: Â Really good. I am a big fan of fried clams a shrimp, and these were excellent. Their cocktail sauce also was just amazing. Â A little extra spicy, just the way I like it. Â My husband loved the hush puppies. Â We actually didn't even try the chicken though it looked really good. Â We were already well on our way to being full and we hadn't even had our shrimp and crabs yet!
All of this food leads up to the big show...
Steamed blue crab and shrimp: ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! Â There was so much shrimp! Â Probably enough for 4 people. Â You'll never need to get more. Â They were big, cooked well, plenty of seasoning and just delicious. Â Did I mention the cocktail sauce? Â The crab was also quite delicious, though obviously it was a lot more work for a lot less pay off. Â My husband loved it too. Â He even ordered more crab, although I'm not sure where he put it. Â The amount of food they gave us was nothing less than overwhelming.
With the exception of a short wait at the beginning, the service was great. Â Our server was taking orders a what must have been a table of 30, so the hostess had to get our drinks because we had been waiting so long. Â We weren't in a hurry and appreciated the hostess's effort. Â Our server was very good once she finally got a chance to get to us. Â
We had a great experience and we will definitely be back the next time we visit the island.
This place was so much fun. We ordered the steam pot to share between my boyfriend and I. There were so many crabs, shrimp, clams, potatoes and corn in this pot that we were stuffed by the end. Our waitress was super nice, she showed us how to crack open those blue crabs in no time flat. The atmosphere is casual but the food was so super good and fresh. I would definitely return here again.
Review Source:I wish I had read the reviews of this place before I ate here. My husband and I came to Chincoteague to celebrate our anniversary. We decided to stop at Steamers thinking we would get some fresh seafood and enjoy a few drinks.
Well we decided to sit at the bar and when the bartender took our drink orders, we asked for a menu as well. She brought us our drinks and completely forgot our menus. No big deal, we asked again and she brought them to us. She took our order for the peel and eat shrimp appetizer. When the shrimp was brought to us we actually had to mix the shrimp up by our hands on the plate because whoever made the shrimp, just dumped a huge pile of spices on top of them without mixing it up. I guess this is where I need to mention that we were not given any napkins at all either. We had to wait until the bartender was done mingling with the regulars before we could get her attention for some napkins.
Some of the shrimp was cold to the touch and there were a few that tasted raw and got spit out. None the less we had decided to still stay (like idiots) and order our main course. Yet again, we had to get the bartenders attention in order to do that. We ordered an array of seafood that ended up horrible. I was not able to tell what kind of fish we were given, the crab cake was ok, but the scallops and shrimp were nasty. We were suppose to receive sweet potato rolls as a side and never received them, and I'm sorry when someone orders corn on the cob, you give them butter to go with it.
Not only did we have to ask for silverware to eat our food, but we had to ask several times for our drinks to be refilled-after they were empty quite some time. As if that wasn't the worst of it, I was up all night throwing up in our hotel room which put a real damper on our 1-night away. This place is a rip off with horrible food and lack of customer service. I would advice staying away if you don't want to be sick!! I'm thinking the health department needs to pay them a visit, as I wasn't surpised to see after reading these reviews, that I wasn't the only one to end up throwing up after eating here!
Not too shabby. Â Where do you end up for dinner when you decide to get away to your favorite beach on the last 80 degree weekend of the summer when you don't think to make reservations. One guess.
Yep, Steamers. Literally after trying to sit down for dinner at 4 different places we finally gave up and decided to give Steamers a try and if that failed we would go to Ledo's. We managed to get a table right away - not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but the place is packed.
The food was just as good as Captain Pell's in Fairfax as another reviewer mentioned. Thank God for Yelp, I was really reluctant in coming here because of the worm review but was also starving... You can't really jank up snowcrab legs. Â My dinner date was equally as happy (that we finally found food) and we ate and ate and ate. Service was sluggish but I didn't go in expecting top notch service so it didn't bother me. What did bother me was the 400lb hostess/"Imma catch you eatin' off someones all you can eat platter" so I can charge you for it woman staring at me my entire meal. Ugh so awkward. That wasn't the bad part... She ended up double charging my credit card. More of an annoyance... But I was happy that we finally found food. Steamers wouldn't be my first, second, third or fourth choice but I'm glad they were open and available for us this night.
This place may be the equivalent of Capt. Pell's in Fairfax. Its extremely low key, down and dirty cracking crabs on the butcher paper, long table style kinda place. The crabs are pricey, service excessively slow but once you get your crab feast, all is good and hits the spot! Just make sure to concentrate on the food in front of you otherwise you may lose your appetite. Ginormous folks everywhere!
Review Source:This place is great. I was down here and this restaurant was highly recommended by co-workers. I am not a seafood person, but I love steak. The steak was fantastic and the sides were decent. The garden salad is huge and does not cost much.
My friends got the big bucket of seafood which contains a few crabs, corn, and other water-dependent creatures. They loved it. The place was practically empty because it was the first day it was opened. The food was reasonably priced. Our server was attentive, polite, and got us our food quickly.
A couple of friends and I stopped here, looking for a seafood dinner. We had the following:
+ Island crab soup
+ New England clam chowder
+ Broiled flounder
+ Stuffed seafood flounder
+ 14 oz. prime rib
The clam chowder was iffy but everything else was delicious (the flounder portions were huuuuge). All items were priced as expected (we averaged around $25 to $30 per person). Our server was efficient, polite and gracious (her and the others had awesome tee shirts on that said "I Got Crabs" hahaaaa). We actually appreciated the roll of paper towels, table covered in brown paper and the trash can next to it. Overall, Steamers was a good experience.
We were so excited to find an "all you can eat" crab place on Chincoteague, but it turned out to be a disappointment. We walked in fairly early on a Saturday night and the place was pretty empty. We were immediately told that they were out of blue crabs, which is what we were hoping for. I don't want something that was flown in from Alaska; I can get that at Red Lobster. We were hoping for fresh crabs, straight from the bay.
Anyway, my husband decided to go with all you can eat steamed shrimp instead. It came with a random assortment of fried things before hand-fried chicken, fried clam strips, hush puppies, a salad, and a cup of chowder. He said the shrimp were good and he had a fresh basket waiting as soon as he finished the first one. I had the Seafood Feast which was HUGE. This was literally 4 meals in 1. It came with a giant piece of flounder, about 7 scallops, a crab cake, 4 pieces of fried shrimp, and was all covered in fried clam strips. I had hush puppies for my side dishes and was only able to make it through about a third of the dish. Did I mention that it was HUGE? It was all very good but just way too much food. We had hoped to hit the ice cream place next door, but there was no way that was happening. Steamers had decent service and was what you would want in an all you can eat seafood place. Brown paper on the tables, a trashcan at the end and servers continuously bringing out fresh food. We will definitely give it another try and hope for the blue crabs next time!
Make sure you wear pants with an elastic band and be prepared to eat! You get a lot of food for under $30. We had the Alaskan crab legs, crabs and clams- all excellent. We also had the spicy shrimp which could have been cooked longer but I overlooked that since I was more into the Alaskan crab legs any ways!
Review Source:Another trip to Steamers and will definitely be back - it's halfway to a dive but solid food and friendly service. Â We avoid the all you can eat crabs because they tend to be smaller, but that's the case everywhere. Â The crab soup is rich and delicious, service is great, and it's a classic paper on the table bucket with condiments place.
Review Source:AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS!!!
I can't really write a full review since we barely ate anything here; what I would like to share is the "experience' we had.
We placed our order of clams and oysters on a half shell as appetizers as well as a couple of entrees. When our appetizers came out, we should have known something wasn't right. They were not only NOT srved on ice but were warm to the touch. This stufff is supposed to be kept chilled or it spoils very quickly. But ok, we overlooked that part and it seemed to taste ok, not great. After a couple oysters, my gf shrieked. I looked over and saw a worm on her plate. Yes a worm. a small one that was still alive and wriggling around on her plate.
Now let me be clear here. It happens to the best restaurants. I know that you can be critical but understanding of the fact that sometimes, shit happens. The worm wasn't the worst part, if you can believe that. It was the events that followed.
I walked up to the hostess and asked to see the manager. Out came a young guy who already looked annoyed to be bothered. He asked me what the issue was and upon hearing about the worm, rolled his eyes and asked to see it in a very obnoxious tone.
Upon seeing the worm, I was sure I would get an apology or at least some sort of "understanding". What I got was him snarling: "Well what do you expect? Its fresh seafood"... Yes the manager of this place actually told me that worms in seafood is a sign of freshness. We pointed out that the clams and oysters were warm on top of this so clearly they were not taking proper care of their food. He offered to comp the appetizers. We told him to cancel our other orders as we had no intention of eating there. He gave us the "whatever" attitude and ran back to the kitchen to cancel the orders.
Grabbing our stuff, we walked out out to the lobby, where we stood for 10-15 minutes thinking that he was going to come back out. He did not, so we proceeded to walk out. The second we were outside, the hostess ran out and started bitching that we didn't pay for our food. I told her what just happened and that her manager had comped the food we did get and cancelled the rest. She started whining that it's not her problem and we HAD to come back inside. Great people they got working here...truly.
We walked back inside and once again had to stand there waiting for the manager. He came back out and with even more attitude asked "So what's the problem now?". "I have no idea" I replied "Your hostess chased us down after we stood and waited for you for you to come out. Apparently she thinks we have something we have to pay for". He informed us that he expected us to pay for out drinks. We owed them $4 for the iced teas we got. I asked him if he was actually serious or pulling my leg. "Well, ya'll drank them" he argued. "Should I pay extra for the parasites in our food as well? Or the attitude? Or making us stand here and wait? Or is all that on the house?" I thought to myself. Then I realized, the guy is idiot. If we did eat something that made us sick, he was offering to provide proof that we ate there that night. However before I had a chance to say anything my gf had enough and stepped in. "You expect us to pay you after you served us almost rancid seafood with worms in it? After offering no apology but plenty of attitude?" she snapped. The manager's responded "We have served over 400 people today and no one had any problems except you. This is fresh seafood and this is what you get with fresh seafood. Maybe you shouldn't order food you know nothing about." Unbelievable. then my gf uttered the right line" "Well if it is normal, then I'm going to go into your dining room, get on a chair and inform your customers that you have worms in your food. If this is normal, I guess they will ignore me and keep eating" Â she said as she turned and headed for the dining room. Soon as that happened a heavy-set woman stepped in and told us to just leave and not worry about the $4. Let me be clear, she was not polite at all. She basically told us to get the hell out, saying something insulting as we were walking out.
Since that time I have spoken to a few managers at other seafood places and they all agreed. The place is a pure shit-hole and should be shut down. They all said that they clearly do not clean their seafood nor do they keep it fresh as they should and that the response of the management is pathetic, inappropriate and would be inexcusable in any real restaurant. So I warn you now, stay away from this place. By the way if anyone is  interested I have a video of the worm in our food, and will be putting it on Youtube shortly.
PS: the iced tea was terrible.
This is never going to my favorite place on the Island. Â I can go a week switching between Dons and the deck bar at Chincoteague Inn and be perfectly happy. Â But that is just me. Â Steamers is a more family friendly place. Â The "All You Can Eat" menu is going to keep a lot of people happy. Decent food, good service, slightly tacky decor.
Review Source:I went with a party of 6 and we all ordered all-you-can-eat crabs. After about an hour we had each had about a dozen crabs, and we were still going strong. Then, we were told the kitchen had "run out of crabs." This was about an hour before closing time. Needless to say, this was a huge disappointment.
Also, one of the crabs was rancid and made my girlfriend a little sick. I guess Steamer's hasn't heard the "never cook a dead crab" rule...
You immediately know this is a seafood restaurant after walking in, it's right next to a great ice cream shop which makes for a perfect dessert after a good meal.
As for the food, they're great and very fresh. The fried soft shelled crabs are superb, although a bit salty, they really made sure the taste sinked in. The cream of crab was a special soup they had that day, and it was pretty good, had this really "crab/seafood" taste to it...a bit too much I think.
The only complain is the price, everything is very expensive, I originally planned to get their signature all-you-can-eat deal, but the only reasonably priced one is the chicken dish, and ordering chicken at a seafood restaurant would just be sad. The dish I wanted was $50, so unless you're one of those food competition dude, it's not worth it.
Pros:
- Great sea food.
- Good service.
- Try their soft shelled crab or crab cake.
Con:
- Kind of expensive
We (young couple with baby) didn't go to Bill's but found Totally I's review accurate. Â Steamers was family friendly with our baby tossing stuff on the floor. Â Besides the brown paper, there's a garbage can at the end of every table... that kind of place. Â Food was quick and good for seafood fare. Â The home-made mozzarella sticks were good, the coconut shrimp so-so. Â The clam chowder however was watery and a mistake. Â With such low expectations for Chincoteague restaurants, this was good. Â Definitely where I'd go for all-you-can-eat crabs. Â Seasonal so I think they are closed after Columbus Day until next year.
Review Source:So, this is what we were really looking for when we went to Bill's seafood restaurant on the island - brown paper rolled out over the table and trays of crabs dumped in the center. Â You better be hungry if you plan on going for an all-you-can-eat meal... and prepare yourself to ingest pound after pound of the same thing with zero variation in flavor. Â Hmm, it doesn't sound like a great idea anymore. Â I'll save my all-I-can eat events for the backyard clam bake or crab/lobster steam. Â I'd say, get something off the menu for a fixed price, like the steam pot, which comes with a little variety. Â The all-you-can-eat meals come with a generic tossed salad, an okay cup of chowder and a heaping of various deep fried stomach stuffers eagerly waiting to render the 'all' you can eat a very small amount.
I'm not really disappointed, but I just think it wasn't necessary. Â I would have liked it just as much if I'd eaten 2 craps and a variety of other things rather than 8-10 crabs. Â They had a specially brewed beer by Old Dominion on tap though, and it was a tasty bargain at $8-something a pitcher.
I'd say though, if you aren't going to get a similar seafood experience on your own, then you can be assured, you'll can get it here.
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